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A47
TUESDAY,
JUNE 25,
2013
• Twitter: @GuardianTT • Web: guardian.co.tt
LONDON---England gave a
major hint regarding its thinking
ahead of the first Ashes Test
against Australia by dropping
Nick Compton and promoting Joe
Root to opener for a four-day
warm-up match against county
side Essex.
Compton has paid the price for
scoring just 39 runs in four
innings in the recent Test series
against New Zealand.
"We believe Joe Root is
currently the best opening
partner for Alastair Cook and he
will open the batting against
Essex," national selector Geoff
Miller said yesterday in naming a
14-man squad for England's only
warm-up match ahead of the
Ashes.
An opener by trade, Root has
slotted into the middle order to
accommodate Compton in recent
test series against India and the
Kiwis. But with Kevin Pietersen
back to full fitness after a knee
injury, Root appears likely to move
up the batting lineup for the
Ashes and Compton is expected
to be the man to miss out.
Fresh off an unbeaten 177 for
Surrey on Sunday in his comeback
match after a three-month lay-off,
Pietersen was included in the
squad for the Essex game as was
offspinner Graeme Swann, who
missed some games in the recent
Champions Trophy because of a
calf injury. (AP)
Compton's Ashes hopes dented by England snub
The Champions Trophy win is
an important landmark in India s
rebuilding effort, and credit must
be extended to the team s selection
committee that has been unafraid
of taking a few tough decisions.
When you saw India jubilant in
England after winning the Cham-
pions Trophy, you couldn t help but
go back to the second day of the
Kolkata Test last year, against the
same opponents. England ended that
day at 216 for 1, a day that summed
up everything that was wrong with
Indian cricket: lacklustre bowlers,
poor catching, fielders who didn t
want to be there and probably---as
a consequence of these factors---a
defensive captain. Cruelly, that day,
the team management sent Trevor
Penney, the fielding coach, for the
press conference.
Penney had no explanation for
India s poor fielding. Rather, he didn t
have an explanation he could speak
publicly about. The team was car-
rying at least four players whose
contributions in their first discipline
had long ago begun to pale in com-
parison with their poor fielding. And
then there was Ravichandran Ash-
win, who had lost form, or patience.
While Ashwin s issue was personal,
and he has addressed it with aplomb,
the other rot was systemic. And it
won t be unfair to believe that---yet
again---amid the debris in Kolkata,
India began a turnaround.
Only this time it began in a selec-
tion committee meeting. And this
panel led by Sandeep Patil has clearly
shown that the scorn heaped on Kris
Srikkanth and Co was earned and
deserved. One by one, they dropped,
Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Virender
Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, in
that order. Look at the replacements.
Murali Vijay has scored more Test
centuries in one series than Sehwag
did in two years. Shikhar Dhawan
outdid in one Test Gambhir s
achievements over the last three
years. Debatably Yuvraj s ODI place
went to Ravindra Jadeja, and the
results are for all to see. Bhuvneshwar
Kumar has not let India miss Zaheer
yet, although that arrangement could
change.
The obvious question that will
arise is: if it was that simple, why
didn t the team management ring
in the changes? They had the
reserves in the squad. First, it wasn t
that simple. While improvement was
guaranteed---it was scarcely possible
to do worse than the outgoing play-
ers---such a huge improvement has
been surprising. More importantly,
though, the captain just can t drop
seniors in India, or in many other
teams.
Call it the team management s
weakness, call it a cultural weakness,
call it whatever, but the Indian team
management had time and again
made it clear that if the underper-
forming players were part of the
squad, they would be part of the
playing XI too. All four of the players
dropped---despite their poor record---
were part of the playing XIs before
they were dropped altogether. Zaheer
and Yuvraj played the Kolkata Test,
which is when the selectors met.
Gambhir played the last Test of the
series, and was only dropped after
it. Sehwag played on until the mid-
series selection in the next series.
Only once had Mahendra Singh
Dhoni tried to disturb the apple cart
when he decided during the 2012
CB series in Australia that Sehwag,
Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar could
not be part of the same playing XI
because that meant giving the oppo-
sition a headstart of 20 runs. Clearly
it was not well received. Sehwag,
who never really opens up in press
conferences, chose to selectively give
out details from the team meeting.
There was bad blood. Dhoni was
criticised for looking ahead, and he
didn t have any backing from the
selectors.
India must enjoy this, and they
will, but the ultimate test awaits
when they begin touring away for
Tests, at the end of this year. That
will tell you for sure what the real
progress has been. However, this
combine of team management and
selectors has already done better
than the previous leadership, in that
they have tried to stop that treadmill
of defeat.
Earlier on that tour, when India
lost every Test with the same set of
batsmen batting in the same
sequence, the touring selectors
enquired with the team management
if they had given thought to leaving
out VVS Laxman who had been far-
ing poorly in particular. They were
told squarely that the selectors would
have to do that. And the selectors
weren t going to touch the seniors.
Somebody needed to make the
unpopular calls, and Patil s group
has begun to do so. It s not as if the
previous selectors didn t have reason
to make changes; India had lost eight
away Tests in a row.
Dhoni s refusal to disturb the sta-
tus quo had another ugly side. The
previous selection committee knew
there would be little room for a new
player in the XI even if they selected
him in the squad. It came to head
when---bizarrely---India selected a
15-man squad with just six batsmen
for the Nagpur Test against South
Africa in 2010. One of those six was
uncapped, and had not found his
way into the XI previously. It was
clear the captain s hand was being
forced here.
How it backfired. One of the six
fell ill, his last-minute replacement
injured himself just before the toss,
and Wriddhiman Saha had to make
Test debut as a specialist batsman.
The chairman of that selection com-
mittee is now a paid expert on a TV
channel, and questions Dhoni s cap-
taincy even though he did nothing
about it when he was in a position
to do so. Dhoni s captaincy is an
issue for another day.
Crucially, now, the selectors have
decided to make the calls that will
not be liked. They were criticised
for dropping Yuvraj for the Cham-
pions Trophy, arguably India s biggest
match-winner in ODIs after Ten-
dulkar and before Dhoni. The selec-
tors, though, looked at just the per-
formance: 181 runs in the last 10
ODIs, and not at the peak of his fit-
ness.
Consequently, for the first time
possibly since India began rebuilding
under Sourav Ganguly and John
Wright, they had a squad of 15 that
were at their best fitness. Ashwin
made up for his slowness with some
good slip-catching. Ishant Sharma
is never short of effort, and Umesh
Yadav and Bhuvneshwar kept them-
selves inconspicuous in the field,
which was a job well done. Thirteen
of the 15 had earned their places
with performances in either recent
international cricket or domestic
matches. Rohit Sharma and Ishant
were picked because of a lack of
alternatives, but they were not what
you would call blind prayers. Patil
and team can afford themselves a
quiet pat on their backs.
India can t afford to get ahead of
themselves. They must enjoy this, and
they will, but the ultimate test awaits
when they begin touring away for
Tests, at the end of this year. That will
tell you for sure what the real progress
has been. However, this combine of
team management and selectors has
already done better than the previous
leadership, in that they have tried to
stop that treadmill of defeat. Not trying
to do so was the most frustrating part
of India s poor show from July 2011
to January 2013. (ESPNcricnfo)
India's tough selection
policies bear fruit
India's Shikhar Dhawan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja with their respective trophies after winning
the Champions Trophy in Edgbaston, on Sunday. Dhawan was the Man of the Match and also received the 'Golden
Bat', Dhoni holds the championship trophy and Jadeja shows off the 'Golden Ball' which they were awarded after
beating England by five runs in the final. PHOTO COURTESY ESPNCRICINFO